Playing House

I used to be a live in nanny. Only within the past couple years have I lived on my own, meaning all furniture and home related accoutrement have been acquired within that time. This has resulted in art supplies stored in awful open plastic bins, a pile of pillows and a low table as some kind of East meets West substitute for seating, and a plastic chair.

Now, I have pretty excellent taste but sometimes you just have to make do with the resources you have and living in a studio somewhat limits your options when it comes to furniture. I love my apartment and have no problem living in a small space but decorating can be a challenge, albeit an enjoyable challenge. One thing I've never wanted for this space was for it to feel like I was trying to fit an entire one or two bedroom apartment into a studio. I wanted my apartment to feel like I was embracing the limitations it offered.

I recently decided that it was probably time I get rid of the plastic furniture and graduate to um, particle board furniture from IKEA. Really though, I love IKEA and am not really at a point in my life where I feel ready to fully invest in furniture. And frankly for this city girl putting together IKEA furniture is about as close to building something I'm ever going to get and I do get a way larger than I'd like to admit sense of accomplishment from following those wordless Swedish drawing directions all the way to an actual piece of furniture. Bonus if I don't end up with extra pieces left over.

So, I ditched the pile of pillows and got a love seat which, even as a larger piece of furniture than what was there before, actually opened everything up a bit. I also threw out the plastic chair and got a couple of gorgeous upholstered folding chairs from Anthropologie. I got a real table I could serve a dinner on. It has these leaves that slide in so most of the time it will be sort of foyer table size. And then, after much experimenting with tables of various sizes and shapes and heights I finally found the thing I'm really excited about. A bright teal garden stool.

You may ask why I want to put a garden stool in my apartment but after spending hours building and moving and experimenting with tables of different sizes, heights, and shapes I finally came to a realization. I cannot own a full sized coffee table. Nor do I really need to. I had narrowed my measurements down to a fairly specific size, knew I wanted something round, and with that information set off towards the internet where I found this table. It has a faux tufted look, a flat top, and is the perfect size for a drink and a book without being so large it's in the way. Plus, how could you not love that color?